Chord finder

Find the name of any chord

You have three or four notes in front of you, on a keyboard, in a piano roll or on a score, and you want to know what the chord is called. Click those notes on the piano and the chord finder tells you. As a piano chord finder it works for the chord you found by ear, the one a sample plays, the MIDI clip you did not name and the voicing you built by hand.

It is free, it runs in your browser and there is nothing to install. Nothing is uploaded, and it needs no account.

How the chord finder names a chord

It takes the notes you picked and tries every one of them as the root. For each root it compares the intervals above it with a list of chord types: major, minor, dominant seventh, major seventh, minor seventh, diminished, augmented, suspended, sixth, add nine, ninth, altered dominants and more. A chord type fits when it contains exactly the notes you picked, with one exception: a seventh or ninth chord may leave out its fifth, as players do.

Then it ranks the names. A chord whose root is the lowest note comes first. When the lowest note is not the root, you get a slash chord: C with E on the bottom is C/E. Other names that fit the same notes are listed under the main one.

Chord identifier: what chord is this?

To use it as a chord identifier, find the notes first. On a piano or a MIDI keyboard, play the chord and click the same keys here. In a DAW, look at the piano roll and click the notes of the chord. From a chart or a score, read the note names and find them on the keys.

The octave does not matter for the name, but the order does. If you want to know whether a chord is in root position or inverted, click the notes in the octaves you play them: the lowest one decides the slash bass.

Scale finder: which scales contain these notes?

Under the chord name you see the scales that contain every note you picked, ranked so the scales that start on the chord's root come first, then the tightest fits. They include the major and the natural, harmonic and melodic minor scales, the modes Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Locrian, the major and minor pentatonic scales, the blues scale, the whole tone scale and the diminished scale.

Click a scale to hear it go up one octave and to read its notes with the right sharps or flats. This is the quick way to pick a scale for a melody over a chord, or to find which key a loop of two or three chords lives in.

Chord lookup: look a chord up

The chord lookup works the other way around. Pick a root and a chord type, and the notes light up on the keyboard, sound, and are named with their intervals: a minor seventh built on D is D, F, A, C. From there you can add or remove a note and see what it becomes. Add the ninth to a C major seventh, and you have a different chord with a different name.

Inversions and slash chords

A chord is in root position when its root is the lowest note. Put the third in the bass and it is in first inversion, the fifth is second inversion. In a lead sheet that is written as a slash chord: C/E, C/G. A slash chord is also used for a bass note that is not part of the chord at all, like F over G.

The finder shows the name with the bass note after the slash, and the other names that fit the notes, so you can pick the one that reads best in your key.

Chord types in plain words

A major chord is the root, the major third and the fifth. A minor chord has a minor third. Diminished has a minor third and a flat fifth, augmented a major third and a sharp fifth. Suspended chords replace the third with a second or a fourth. A sixth chord adds the sixth to a triad. Seventh chords add a seventh: a dominant seventh has a minor seventh above a major triad, a major seventh has a major seventh, a minor seventh has a minor third and a minor seventh. A half-diminished chord is a minor seventh with a flat fifth. Ninth chords add the second note an octave up.

Tips for naming chords by ear

Start with the bass. The lowest note is the root most of the time, and when it is not, you will hear the chord lean, which is a slash chord. Then sing or play the third above it: if it sounds bright the chord is major, if it sounds dark it is minor. Add the seventh and listen for the color: a major seventh floats, a minor seventh is mellow, a dominant seventh pulls toward the next chord.

When you have a guess, click the notes here and check. If the finder names a different chord than you expected, click the keys one by one and listen to what changes. That is the fastest way to train your ear, and it costs nothing.

Why one chord can have two names

Chord names come from the notes, but the same notes can be heard from more than one root. C, E, G and A is C6 if the bass is C and Am7 if the bass is A. A set of notes that is a half-diminished chord on one root can also be a minor sixth chord on another. The finder lists the likely names, best first, so you can pick the one that fits the key you are in.

Spelling is the other source of double names. The same black key is a sharp in one key and a flat in another, so A sharp and B flat are the same pitch. The finder shows the common spelling for each note and the circle of fifths page shows which one a key uses.

For producers and songwriters

Use it to name the chords in a MIDI loop you did not write, to check what a sample is playing, to label a progression before you send the project to someone, or to find the missing chord when a bridge is not working. Use the scale finder to pick the notes for a lead or a vocal topline, and to see which scales a chord is part of. Teachers use it to show how one set of notes has more than one name.

What it does not do

It names the notes you click, so it does not listen. To get the notes of a recording, use audio to MIDI and then click the notes of a bar here. The finder shows one spelling for each note, so a chord might be written with a sharp where your key uses a flat. Chords with many added notes may fit more than one name, and the finder lists them for you to choose. It is a beta, so tell us what you would like to see.